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Re: Pole Pigs
In a message dated 96-11-22 22:40:59 EST, you write:
<< Subject: Pole Pigs
What is the benefit of going up to a pole pig?? Do you hook it up to the
mains before they enter your house?? are they used when you want your
primary side of the step up transformer to draw more than 15 amps??
/sb >>
Scott,
Most folks go to pole pigs when they are tired of blowing neon sign
transformers and/or they want to make that next step up in power above 1 or 2
kva. It is powered from your breaker box using 220 volts and 30 or 50 amp
breakers - similar to a circuit you would put in for an arc welder, dryer or
electirc range. It is an expensive step. The pole pig will cost from $100
if you are lucky like me up to $350. You will also need a large variac that
will handle 20 or 30 amps and something to use as an inductive ballast - like
an arc welder. Then you need some heavy duty resistive ballast (old oven
elements work good and are cheap) , a 50 amp AC ampmeter to monitor the
primary current and you will need to build a rotary spark gap because the
pole pig is not current limited like a neon transformer and a static gap
won't quench. Once a static gap fires with a pole pig, it will stay fired
and severely load the output voltage of the pig - it will also try to draw
lots of current.
All in all, it does provide a good, bullet proof power supply but will
probably cost somewhere in the range of $500 to $1000 to put together.
Ed Sonderman